Chapter Eighteen
Paul
I was in the middle of browsing for houses to buy when the doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting anyone this late at night. It was almost midnight for Christ sakes. I wanted to get a list of houses to look at with Andi because I was quitting S&R and would no longer be welcomed in the house I was living in. Andi would since she would still be working for the company, but that needed to change as well.
I peeked out of the dining room window and saw a taxi waiting in the street. Getting to my feet, I walked to the door and opened it as a body fell onto me.
“Andi? What the fuck?” My heart stopped the moment I realized it was her. Her beautiful brown hair was tangled, her yellow dress was ripped, and her skin was starting to bruise where there wasn’t already blood from cuts. “What the fuck happened?” I asked, hugging her against my body.
“You need to pay me!” the cab driver shouted from the street.
“I’m … fine. Just pay him,” she whispered and stumbled past me.
“The hell you are! You need to tell me what the fuck happened. Your date did this? Where’s your car?”
“Just pay him.” She fell to the floor.
“Baby …”
“Go!” She began to cry.
How was I supposed to leave her crying, bleeding and hurting in the entryway while I paid for a fucking cab?
“And—”
The Cabby honked and Andi whispered against the wood floor, “Please, just do it.”
I ran to our room, grabbed my wallet off of the dresser and bolted out of the front door, jumping over Andi in the process. After glancing at the meter, I pulled the bills from my wallet and tossed them at the driver before I ran back to her. She hadn’t moved in the few seconds I was gone. I scooped her up, kicked the door shut, then sat on the couch with her in my arms and rocked her, waiting for her to tell me what the fuck had happened before I lost my fucking mind.
“Baby, you need to tell me what happened before I lose my shit.”
“It was like walking into my seventeenth birthday again.”
Her body shook as tears soaked my chest. I held her tight against me, not knowing what else to do. I wanted to beat the ever living shit out of whoever did this to her. Who would book a date with someone to do this? A motherfucking asshole, that’s who.
And I was going to find him.
“He rap—” I couldn’t finish my thought as I pictured Andi being held down, a man over her and …
She shook her head. “No, I got away.”
I squeezed her tighter, my body relaxing a little as I sank into the couch, squeezing her harder against me. “Please tell me what happened so I can help you.”
“You …” She sniffed. “You can’t help me.”
“We can call Mark and he can call the police, have the guy arrested.”
She sprang from my lap. “Shit, I have to call Eric.”
I stood, reaching for her to bring her back to me. “Eric? Who’s Eric?”
Confusion flashed in her eyes as she stared back at me, not moving to my outreached hand. “No … No one. Mark can’t help.”
“What the fuck, Andi? What’s going on?”
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Blood transferred to her hand and she stared at it as if she didn’t realize she was bleeding. “My date wasn’t with a client from S&R. There’s just so much you don’t know.”
“I’m not understanding this, Andi. You need to talk to me. Why did you have a date with someone not with S&R?” My hand was still in the air. I was hoping and praying she would take it, but she didn’t. Instead, she sank to the floor and started to cry again. I followed her and crouched down so I was on the same level.
“Because my mother sold me when I seventeen.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, baby.”
She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. I pulled her to me. I didn’t care if she wanted me to. This was the woman I loved and if she didn’t want to be in my arms, then she needed to speak up.
She didn’t. She let me hold her, her body shaking as she cried. “I want to save them all.”
“Save who?”
“The girls.”
She wasn’t making any sense. One minute we were talking about her almost getting raped. The next we were talking about her losing her virginity. And now we were talking about her saving women? How did they all link?
“What girls?”
“The ones like Nelly,” she sobbed.
Who the fuck was Nelly?
“Baby, please. You were attacked. We need to call the cops.”
She pulled back. “No!” She scrambled to her feet again. “No cops. I’m done. I won’t have any more dates outside of S&R. I promise.” She grabbed my head on each side, peering into my eyes as if she needed to get the point across. “I promise. I won’t have any more dates outside of S&R. No cops … please, Paul,” she repeated.
“Are you in danger?” She didn’t say anything. “Andi …”
She pulled back and started to pace. “Leah and Nina told me not to get mixed up with this crew. I didn’t listen.”
“Why?” I snapped, my hands instantly clenched.
“I wanted to help the girls.”
I got it. It was similar to what I did with my self-defense classes and how I showed people—especially woman how to shoot guns properly. But the question was why? “Why baby? Why do you feel you need to put your life in danger and help them?”
She groaned and started flinging her hands as she spoke. I could tell she was starting to get frustrated. “Because women shouldn’t be sold like I was when I was seventeen. We should be able to choose who we want to have sex with.” She stopped pacing again, dropped her hands to her side and I caught the sight of her lips starting to quiver again. “Don’t you get it?”
More tears streamed down her face and I pulled her to me again. Her head fit perfectly beneath my chin and I let her cry against my chest once more. “Aren’t these girls going on a date with these men and choosing to have sex with them or not?”
“Some … Some are. Some aren’t. Some are being sold without being told.”
“Like sex trafficking?” She nodded. “Baby, that’s the cop’s jobs. You shouldn’t put yourself in danger like that.”
She was silent for a long time as her crying eased. “I thought I could get through to the women. Make them quit working the streets.”
“This isn’t what you told me on our picnic.”
“I know, but I couldn’t tell you then. You would have thought I was crazy.”
I groaned and shook my head. “Fuck, gorgeous. I could have lost you.”
“Not a chance. I’m tougher than you think.”
I sighed. “I bet you are.” I leaned down and kissed her lips. She winced slightly. They were busted and tasted of copper. “We need to call the cops and tell them what happened.”
She shook her head. “No cops. They told me that if anything happened, they would be after me. I don’t want any more red flags.”
“Then we’re going to the range tomorrow. I’m teaching you how to shoot.”
She laughed. “You’re teaching me how to shoot?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Yeah. I can’t tell you to quit, but I won’t have my woman walking around waiting for something like this to fucking happen again and not be prepared. If you have a problem with that, then too fucking bad. Fuck, Andi, this is what I do!”
I was ready for her to quit, but I knew she wouldn’t. She was the independent type and there were things we needed to take care of before we took that step—like getting her another job.
She stared at me for a few seconds and smiled, then winced and touched her lips as if the dry blood cracked and caused her pain. “Do I win anything if I have beginner’s luck?”
How was she trying to lighten the mood right now?
I thought for a moment. “If you hit the target in the heart, you win mine forever.”
She laughed. “I thought I already had yours forever?”
“Of course you do, gorgeous. Let’s get you cleaned up. You had a long night.”
When I woke the next morning, she was already awake. I heard her on the phone as I walked by her room on the way to the kitchen. It sounded as though she’d changed her mind and had called the police to report the incident. She was telling them how it happened in room 2316 at the Wynn. I stood behind her closed bedroom door, listening, my blood boiling. But before she could hang up the phone, it struck me …
People didn’t make reports over the phone.